In the end of the chapter is a little surprise! Enjoy Chapter 4! SSD and MTD


He wasn't that bad.

Not nearly as cocky as he'd been on the field during their first acquaintance, or annoying for that matter. And under that initial obnoxious exterior, what do you know, he had a good heart.

Good enough to go against a direct order and take in a princess that was wanted for a large sum of money. Good enough to commit a crime punishable by years thrown in the castle's dungeon.

She sighed, watching as the water lapped at her toes. It was cooler wherever they were, maybe in a higher north region? The air had a chilly breeze, but the sun was still warm. The water, however, was not. It made goosebumps rise on her arms, spreading from her chest to her legs.

She considered running away. Thinking of his already lousy reputation he had in the kingdom, she quickly disregarded the idea when she thought of the aftermath it would have if Deeks returned empty handed.

Why did she even care about him? Some washed up, overconfident, sorry-excuse-for a warrior (maybe not sorry. She'd heard stories about his bravery. And, more importantly, his selflessness. But that was besides the point) who had the nerve to curse around her and treat her like common folk when she was exactly the opposite.

Maybe that was the reason she was attracted to him.

After all, she'd give her wealth and position in the kingdom up if it meant going back to living in her tiny cottage with her father even though she knew that was impossible. She'd rather be watching her dad assemble a bow and arrow than trying on dresses. She'd rather be drinking goat's milk and eating freshly laid eggs then feasting on extravagant arrangements of food that looked too pretty to eat. And she'd much rather be choosing her own husband at this age, somebody funny, talkative, but also sensitive, sporting a golden heart, and, of course, a little easy on the eyes. Somebody who didn't feel compelled to treat her like royalty, somebody who understood that she didn't want money or need special treatment. Somebody like...

"Deeks."

"Hey. I was just making sure you hadn't made a mad dash for the waves and doggy paddled away in the hopes of finding a private island that you could live on in the middle of the ocean."

"The thought occurred to me," she admitted with a small laugh, running her fingers through her hair which she had taken out of it's plait sometime between coming outside and realizing that had she had a choice, she would've looked for traits that Deeks had in a husband.

"So you promise you're sticking around?" Did he sound... hopeful?

"Guess so. Getting eaten by a shark doesn't hold much appeal to me at the time being."

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Something tells me that if I say no, you'll ask it anyway." He chuckled, sitting down in the sand next to her when she sunk to her bottom, pulling her knees to her chest. "So yeah, ask away."

"Is Prince Callen really related to you?"

She tried not to focus on the randomness of the question, shrugging instead. "Who, G? No. Well, not by blood. He's been with Hetty for awhile. I came after him."

"That explains why you two look nothing alike."

"Yeah." It struck her as strange that the constitutions of her kingdom didn't know the real story of the people that ruled them. What, did one day they thought that Hetty popped out a twelve year old boy and then a fifteen year old girl that she'd been stashing away for years? "Now it's my turn to ask a question- how do you think we're all related? Or were brought together or whatever?"

"Well, one day an asteroid crashed into earth, and inside was a dinosaur. That dinosaur laid an egg, and when it hatched so was born Hetty. Then Hetty found a birdie and jacked it up on steroids and so Prince Callen was created, and you, well, nobody knows about you. My guess is a fallen star."

He winked. She blushed.

"Phase 2 complete, render her speechless!"

Clearing her throat, she tried to train her mind to think straight again. "So, you- you really have no idea where we came from? And everybody just rolls with it?"

"Think about it. If you were a commoner, would you wake up one day and go, 'Gee, why don't I have a nice little chat with Queen Hetty who can kill a man with a nail-file and ask her if the prince and princess are even related to her.'"

"Okay, okay. Point taken."

They fall silent for a second, just staring at the waves. He nudges her shoulder. "So you're not going to tell me the story of how you were crafted by Aphrodite herself and then pulled some badass if not idiot move and got blown out of the heavens by Zeus?"

"How long do you spend coming up with these pick-up lines?"

"I actually have a process. Brainstorm for thirty minutes each morning, read some sonnets, write some love stories, try to brainstorm again-"

She laughed, rolling her eyes. "You're so full of-"

"Adorableness?"

"Yeah, let's go with that."

After a minute or two, she was just about to find a position on her stomach or back that was more comfortable (she hadn't gotten as much sleep as she'd necessarily wanted to the night before, but that was mostly because A] she wanted to sleep for three days straight after the day she'd had yesterday and B] sleeping with a man she hardly knew wasn't something she was accustomed to.) But before she could do so, Deeks asked, "Can I show you something?"

A nap on the beach could wait, so she nodded. When she stood up, he caught her by surprise and took her hand in his. "The laurels get pretty thick in a few hundred feet," he explained, but he was pretty sure he was just making excuses, so she told him so.

"You're just making excuses."

"Yeah, I'm just making excuses. I kind of want to hold your hand."

Color rose to her cheeks at his bluntness, but she didn't untwine their fingers. Instead, she smiled.

It was a nice hike, and he filled it with light chatter, banter, and plenty of jokes, some cheesy, some hilarious. He told her about his two best friends, a con artist that with a name he wouldn't reveal to her (she was a princess, after all), and a stable hand named Eric who was creepily smart and an awesome fishing buddy, which happened to be one of his favorite pastimes. He told her about his horse, Monty, and how Monty would eat literally anything that he could get a hold of, including Deeks's brand new silk lingerie that he had purchased for his girlfriend for Valentine's Day. "So I come in and the horse has a piece of silk in his mouth that costs more than my house..."

He was insanely talkative, but she liked it. She'd never liked feeling like she had to be the entertainer, or that she was having a one sided conversation. And he, he didn't seem to mind at all. Their hands stayed together for a majority of the trip, and when they finally arrived at the top of a hill, he smiled. "Ta-da."

Kensi gasped softly. From the top of the hill was a beautiful view of the grasslands between them and the kingdom on the opposite end. In the distance, she could see the tall towers of the castle looming over the forest like the intimidator that it was, the rest of the kingdom dots. The grasslands, however, were breathtaking. The forest she'd ran through took almost half the view of the land, but the land had tiny farms and rows of crops and another tiny village she guessed was still under Hetty's rule.

"Deeks.. this is..."

"Beautiful? Yeah, it is. I found while I was just wandering around almost a year ago. It's a nice getaway when you wanna break from the constant shit Granger puts you through."

They sat in silence, Deeks sneaking glances at Kensi's relaxed face occasionally. He had to consciously remind himself to tear his eyes away from her on more than one occasion, but it was hard. Really hard. Her eyes, one molten gold, the other so dark it was nearly black, drank in the scene in front of her. It was comparable to a child discovering its shadow for the first time, a bird learning that it could fly, a water-deprived traveler discovering a rich oasis. Her hair fell against her shoulders, framing her high cheekbones and sharp jaw. Her smooth skin and lips that were so perfect they looked as if they had been painted onto her face contrasted against all of the edged angles that made up her bone structure, and one eye so warm, the other so striking, balanced her ratio of dark and light, all coming together to shape one of the most extravagant creatures he'd every had the pleasure of laying his eyes on.

And God, her figure...

He scooted closer, and putting an arm around Kensi's side. He couldn't help it, not really. She radiated brilliance that was irresistible. She leaned against him, surprising him. The scenery's gorgeous, yes, but she was better, and he caught himself turning his head to steal a peek at her again, only to find that she turned her head at the same time as he did. They were close, so close, eyes locked, noses nearly touching. Was he about to kiss Princess Kensi?

He was about to kiss Princess Kensi.

But, yet another shocker, she cut him to the chase.


Oh..my..God. Every kiss, every labored pant, that was all that she could think. As they pulled their lips apart, she took a shaky breath. Her lips felt as they were ablaze, her heart hammering against her rib cage. He connected his lips with hers again with slightly more force and she fell back and landed between the soft grass and his hard chest. He pulled back and she moaned from the sudden separation, half tempted to grab a handful of his hair and pull him back down. He looked at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, God yes," She groaned, finally giving into the temptation and pulling his head down to hers again. She kissed him, hands roaming over his shoulder blade, against his chiseled back muscles that she could feel through his white linen shirt. Releasing the handful of hair she'd fisted to maneuver his lips back to hers, she moved her palm to the back of his neck.

"Wow," Deeks whispered, brushing the same piece of hair that he'd been admiring mere minutes before from Kensi's face. It was softer than he'd imagine it would be, and the strands felt like smooth silk between his fingers. She giggled, the sound chiming against his ears like soft chimes.

"Enjoying yourself?" she teased, batting her long eye lashes.

"Almost as much as you are," he countered, and she laughed.

"Cockiness will get you nowhere."

"Actually," he countered, "it has gotten me this far."

"Oh, whatever."

Deeks stood up and held out his hand towards Kensi. She grabbed it and got up, nearly falling on top of Deeks. Her head was still spinning, and he'd literally made her legs weak. Seeing her reaction to their little make-out section, he smirked. She punched him.

"What was that for?!"

"Oh, don't give me that." She was all smiles, and when he took his hand to lead her back to the shack, she easily excepted it.

They joke and laugh on the trip back, stealing kisses occasionally. But all laughter was gone the moment they entered the structure, replaced with passion. The embraces were more intense than they'd been in the field, the heat of the moment making the air thick around them. She could hardly breathe, her stomach a mixture of butterflies, nerves, and need.

He'd lost his shirt somewhere along the way, and her dress was crumbled in a pile next to the table she'd ate breakfast at hours before. When she wrapped her body against his he caught on quickly and complied, helping to lift her so that she could wrap her legs around his hips. Once there, Kensi pulled away from him for a millisecond, staring into his perfect blue eyes.

Maybe he saw the anxiousness and fear in her eyes and maybe it made him second guess himself, but whatever the reason was, he asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," she answered, kissing him again to prove her point. "God, yes."

With her assurance he carried her to the bed, laying her as gently as he could against the mattress and landing against her, their groins separated only by cloth. She shuddered, mumbling, "Deeks..."

"Somebody's impatient," he laughed, rolling his hips against hers.

"Would you please shut up?"